Just in time for Tolkien Reading Day, a new film set in Middle-earth has been confirmed. With the working title of Shadow Of The Past, the project is being written by Tolkien super fan and talk show host Stephen Colbert. In their coverage of the news, The Hollywood Reporter noted that the film has been given an official synopsis. Set 14 years after the close of The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King, Sam, Merry, and Pippin begin to reminisce on the start of their journey to destroy the Ring all those years ago. As they do this, Eleanor Gamgee, Sam’s eldest daughter, begins to uncover secrets about their journey, learning more of the exploits of her father and his friends to bring peace to Middle-earth. 

While Middle-earth veterans Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens will be producing, the most noteworthy aspect of production is the addition of Colbert and his son, Peter McGee, who will be writing the screenplay. Colbert himself is a massive Tolkien and Middle-earth fan, as he’s shown on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. It was Colbert himself that approached Jackson with the idea. 

“It took me a few years to scrape my courage into a pile to give you a call, but about two years ago I did. You liked it enough to talk to me about it, and ever since then, the two of us have been working with the brilliant Philippa Boyens on how to develop this story,” he said in an announcement video, posted on Instagram in celebration of Tolkien Reading Day. 

Colbert also went in-depth about what sparked the inspiration for the project. He said that it was a handful of chapters that were not adapted into Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring but were a major part of the journey in Tolkien’s novel. The chapters cover the stretch of time when Frodo and his companions set out from his Hobbiton home to just before they meet the mysterious Strider at The Prancing Pony. 

Detailing his thought process, he said,  “Oh, wait, maybe that could be its own story that could fit into the larger story. Could we make something that was completely faithful to the books while also being completely faithful to the movies that you guys had already made?” 

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